[cowcool]

What will happen if a contract expired ? Suppose I don't sell , will I lost all the money on expiration date?Thx!

[wjrusnak]

In emini futures, you are trading the cash-value of the underlying index. In the case of the Emini S&P500 that would be say $42,800 ($50 * 856 points). Now for every seller this is a buyer (more specifically, for every long there is a short) and since there is no underlying commodity for emini index futures, I would assume that every short would cover and every long would sell (I mean why wouldn't you?). If you didn't I'm sure your broker would probably sincerely urge you to, considering you'll owe them $42k, but I'm not completely positive.

Honestly though, I have searched around and no one seems to have a definitive answer. Most people roll over contracts (i.e. sell your March contract and buy a June contract). And to precede a question, "you sell you long, so someone owns it at expiration right?", there is a short for that long, so the buyer is actually a short covering, thus expiring the contract. If you have a burning desire to know though, try it It's only $40k right?! I can live without knowing though.

If anyone else has a better answer I'll be pleased to hear it.

-- Bill

**Much of this info was gathered at http://www.informedtrades.com/273480...t-expires.html

[thrunner]

It settles to cash, but your broker will likely close it out for you if you don't have enough cash to settle.

http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equi.../eminifaq.html

Cash settlement. All open positions at the close of the final trading day are settled in cash to the Special Opening Quotation on Friday morning of the S&P 500 Index

How do the quarterly E-mini futures settle and when is the last time to trade before expiration?
E-mini quarterly contracts expire at the same time and to the same price as their larger counterpart contracts. For quarterly futures contracts, trading can occur up to 8:30 a.m., Chicago time, on the third Friday of the month.